WASHINGTON, DC-Representative Eliot L. Engel, the leading Democrat on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, today delivered the following remarks at a full Committee markup of a resolution expressing concern over reports of state-sanctioned organ harvesting in China (H.Res. 281).

“Chairman, thank you for holding this important markup…”
“I also support H.Res. 281, introduced by my friend Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and the Royce amendment to that resolution. This measure shines a light on disturbing allegations that China has engaged inorgan harvesting from prisoners, including Falun Gong practitioners and ethnic Uighurs.
“Forced organ harvesting is an unconscionable violation of human rights. The targeting of individuals based on their faith or ethnicity is equally deplorable and must not be tolerated.

The inside story of China’s organ transplant business and its macabre connection with internment camps and killing fields for arrested dissidents, especially the adherents of Falun Gong.

Mass murder is alive and well. That is the stark conclusion of this comprehensive investigation into the Chinese state’s secret program to get rid of political dissidents while profiting from the sale of their organs–in many cases to Western recipients. Based on interviews with top-ranking police officials and Chinese doctors who have killed prisoners on the operating table, veteran China analyst Ethan Gutmann has produced a riveting insider’s account–culminating in a death toll that will shock the world.

Why would the Chinese leadership encourage such a dangerous perversion of their medical system? To solve the puzzle, Gutmann journeyed deep into the dissident archipelago of Falun Gong, Tibetans, Uighurs and House Christians, uncovering an ageless drama of resistance, eliciting confessions of deep betrayal and moments of ecstatic redemption.

In an age of compassion fatigue, Gutmann relies on one simple truth: those who have made it back from the gates of hell have stories to tell. And no matter what baggage the reader may bring along, their preconceptions of China will not survive the trip.
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By Epoch Times
Vaginal Coma, a new book revealing the brutal sexual torture of female Falun Gong practitioners and petitioners detained in Masanjia Labor Camp in China, was published in Hong Kong on July 21.
The book is by former New York Times photojournalist Du Bin. In May 2013 he released in Hong Kong a documentary film on the same topic, Above the Ghosts’ Heads: The Women of Masanjia Labor Camp. In 2011 Du published the book Toothbrush in 2011 in Taiwan on the torture of Falun Gong practitioners.
“As a human being, there’s no reason or excuse to tolerate the atrocities that happened in ‘Masanjia Women’s Labor Camp,’ including the long-time use of a uterine dilator for tube feeding women, making women lie in their own waste, tying up several toothbrushes and twisting them in women’s vaginas, putting pepper powder in women’s vaginas, shocking women’s breasts and vaginas with electric batons, and putting women into male cells …” the author Duwrote on twitter after the release of the book.

By Epoch Times
LOS ANGELES—Over 150 Falun Gong practitioners gathered opposite the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles on July 20 to commemorate the persecution that began 15 years ago and demand the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cease its atrocities against the practice.
Dr. Yingnian Wu, a professor at UCLA and spokesperson for Falun Gong practitioners in the greater LA area, addressed the group regarding a general misunderstanding that an appeal by Falun Gong practitioners in China on April 25, 1999, caused the persecution. He discussed how the CCP had already been harassing Falun Gong practitioners for some time, while having agencies undermine the practice publicly.
From 1992, when Falun Gong—a spiritual discipline based on truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance—was first brought to the public, to 1999, it grew in popularity, gaining support from officials and scholars alike. Mr. Li Hongzi, the founder of the practice, had even received various awards from official agencies. However, in the background, an infiltration was ordered by Jiang Zemin, the former top leader of China. The secret agents revealed no negative aspects of the practice. In fact, they praised its effects on the health and well being of the people.
Zemin, however, was not satisfied. He ordered various professionals of different disciplines to attack the practice’s philosophy and health benefits and have those published through various public means—a strong turn from the previously supportive stance the CCP took in declaring the Falun Gong practice to be a benefit to the people before 1999.

Police burst into homes to take blood or DNA samples from Falun Gong practitioners.
Police across China are rounding up Falun Gong practitioners and forcing them to give blood samples in order to set up a DNA database, said a report published last week on the Minghui website. The police are believed to be doing the testing in order to expand the list of potential donors whose organs may be taken for forced harvesting.
Minghui is a clearinghouse for reports by Falun Gong practitioners about the persecution they suffer in China. A July 19 article lists over 25 incidents, some involving as many as 10 practitioners, in Liaoning, Guizhou, Hebei, and Hunan provinces, as well as in Beijing. These provinces are dispersed geographically, stretching from the far northeast of the country to the southwest.
In a typical incident, Falun Gong practitioners report police breaking into their homes and extracting blood against their will, sometimes forcibly.
An investigation in 2006 into forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners by international human rights lawyer David Matas and the Canadian M.P. David Kilgour uncovered how practitioners held in labor camps were selected by authorities for the drawing of blood and other tests. Kilgour and Matas’s report was later published as the book Bloody Harvest.

By Epoch Times
SYDNEY—Members of the Australian Parliament have joined forces for the first time to address the pressing global issues of forced organ harvesting and transplant tourism.
Forced organ harvesting is the removal of organs from a donor without obtaining prior voluntary consent, according to Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH). Medical tourists from countries including Australia travel overseas to obtain organs, which may come from prisoners executed to order – a practice called transplant tourism.
The newly formed Parliamentary friendship group Parliamentarians Against Forced Organ Harvesting (PAFOH) held their first meeting in Canberra on July 16. More than 10 politicians have so far joined PAFOH, including MPs from the Liberal and Labor parties, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and independents.
“There is no way that you can condone the practice of killing people for their organs in any way, shape or form,” said Senator John Madigan from the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), co-convenor of PAFOH.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina–A gang made up of members of local Chinese associations attacked Argentine practitioners of the Falun Dafa spiritual discipline (also known as Falun Gong) who were protesting on Friday, July 18, as the visit of Chinese leader Xi Jinping began. The protest was about the brutal persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners in China who are imprisoned, tortured, sent to labor camps, and have been victims of forced organ harvesting.

The attackers were believed to have been organized by the Chinese Embassy. Chinese embassies around the world typically gather local Chinese residents to greet visiting Chinese officials while crowding out protesters.

In a related incident on Saturday, the Chinese vice military attaché in Argentina was taken away by police after physically threatening the Falun Dafa practitioners and resisting police.

On Friday the Falun Dafa practitioners protested peacefully on the sidewalk opposite the Sheraton Hotel located in Retiro, where the Chinese leader Xi Jinping was staying. They were holding signs urging Xi to end the ongoing persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners in China.

Argentine practitioners gathered from early morning across the street with banners reading “Falun Dafa is good,” dressed in yellow shirts and jackets, and they informed passersby about the persecution of Falun Dafa in China. Many passersby expressed astonishment and indignation after hearing about the current persecution of millions of Falun Dafa practitioners in China for the past 15 years.

AUSTRALIA – A rally in front of Parliament House condemned the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) systematic and state-sanctioned crime of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners.

Senator John Madigan, Member of Parliament Craig Kelly and Professor Maria Fiatarone Singh from the University of Sydney spoke at the rally. MP Andrew Wilkie delivered a letter to the Australia Falun Dafa Association to voice his support for the rally.

Senator John Madigan and MP Craig Kelly are founders of Parliamentarians Against Forced Organ Harvesting (PAFOH). They arrived at the rally around noon and gave talks supporting the practitioners’ effort to call for an immediate end to the state-sanctioned organ harvesting in China.

By Minghui
LONDON – A unique scene unfolding on the square in front of Parliament caught the attention of passers-by. A group of Falun Gong practitioners wearing yellow T-shirts or golden exercise outfits demonstrated the five sets of Falun Gong exercises. Beside them was a large banner worded, “The world needs Truth, Compassion, Tolerance.” The activity was part of a series of events that Falun Gong practitioners held on the 15th anniversary of the persecution, to raise awareness about Falun Gong and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) brutal persecution of the peaceful cultivation practice.
Ten Members of Parliament (MPs) sent letters of support for the event. Some MPs came in person to express their support and signed the petition against the CCP’s live organ harvesting.
MP Mr. Richard Graham chairs the All Party Parliamentary Groups for Pensions, Regeneration Through Innovation, the Commonwealth, Indonesia, and China. Mr. Graham stopped at the event and talked with Falun Gong practitioners. Several practitioners had been invited to his office earlier in the day to discuss Falun Gong and the persecution.

OTTAWA—Fifteen years ago on July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched a genocidal campaign against some 70 to 100 million adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual faith in China—a campaign that continues unabated today.

To mark this tragic anniversary, practitioners of Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, and their supporters gathered in front of the Chinese embassy in Ottawa on July 17.

A similar event occurred on the same day in Montreal, and other gatherings will occur over the next few days across Canada and around the globe.

Appealing for a Father’s Release
Paul Li, a Canadian citizen and Toronto resident who is a practitioner of Falun Gong, spoke at the event to tell a personal story about his father’s firsthand experience of the benefits of practicing Falun Gong as well as the brutality and injustice of the persecution.

By Epoch Times
Longtime rights defender recognized for his work
Upon learning about the Holocaust in his youth, David Matas felt the urge to do something in response to the massive crime against humanity. He later found his calling in taking up human rights causes.

“Human rights became a vehicle to be able to do something,” said the Winnipeg-based international human rights lawyer, who over the years has devoted his time to many worthwhile causes.

That work was recognized on July 10, when Matas received the Carthage International Award in Rome in the category of Peace and Defence of Human Rights.

The award is granted annually by the International Carthage Academy, a non-profit organization that presents awards in 16 different categories to those in Italy and abroad who have contributed to the development and dissemination of culture and knowledge in various fields.

WASHINGTON—A bipartisan group of members of Congress and leaders of human rights organizations observed on Thursday an anniversary that communist China would prefer be ignored—the 15th year of the persecution of Falun Gong.

Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners and supporters converged on the West Lawn of the Capitol to cheer speeches calling for an end to the persecution, which began on July 20, 1999.

The speakers honored the 3,769 practitioners confirmed killed by the regime. The true number who died from torture and abuse while being held in prisons, detention centers, labor camps, and brainwashing facilities is undoubtedly several times larger. In addition, researchers believe tens of thousands more have been murdered for their organs, which are used for transplantation.

The speakers also honored the millions of Falun Gong practitioners inside China for practicing “civil disobedience on a scale unprecedented in China’s history,” according to the Falun Dafa Information Center.

Thanks to Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, Paul Li, a survivor of the persecution, and to all of you for coming today to protest the crimes against humanity that have now continued for 15 years against Falun Gong practitioners across China.

Photo: Alex Neve of Amnesty International speaking at Chinese embassy in Ottawa on commemoration of 15 years of persecution of Falun Gong.

This event is part of a global mobilization marking the persecution of Falun Gong in China launched on July 20, 1999. I understand that vigils will be held across Canada and in various other rule of law countries around the world in front of Chinese embassies and consulates marking this day of shame.

By Epoch Times
An official European representative body has promulgated a new convention outlawing the trafficking in human organs, calling on all countries to become signatories to it and criminalize the practice and punish offenders.
The convention, called the “Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs” was adopted by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers on July 9. The Council of Europe is composed of 47 member states; it does not make binding laws, but provides policy guidelines and promotes good governance.
With the new convention, it aims to have governments criminalize certain forms of organ transplantation, including where the donor is not freely consenting, or where the donor or a third party receives financial gain from the transaction.
The full document explains that its purpose is in part also to “facilitate co-operation at national and international levels on action against the trafficking in human organs.”

By Minghui
At the third Minnesota Food Truck Fair, a free annual event in uptown Minneapolis that brings people together from all around the State of Minnesota, visitors were offered an opportunity to support a worthy cause while enjoying gourmet food.
At the June 29 event, Falun gong practitioners shared the facts of the persecution that is taking place in China and collected signatures to call for an end to the Chinese Communist Party’s state-sanctioned crimes of harvesting organs from persecuted Falun Gong practitioners.

By Minghui
Display boards describing the crimes of state-sanctioned organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners in China were seen by locals and foreigners on the morning of July 5, 2014, as they walked along the bustling Bahnhof Strasse shopping avenue in Zurich, Switzerland. Many passersby signed their names to the signature petition, which was organized by Falun Gong practitioners.

By Epoch Times
The world is acting quickly to counter the international traffic organs and Italy is in the game.
Only three days ago, July 9th, the Council of Europe adopted the first convention to combat human organs traffic, encouraging a “close international cooperation between Member States [of the Council] and non-member states.”
Yesterday at the Italian Parliament was held the First Symposium on Ethics in transplantation, which gathered together doctors, lawyers and institutions with the same goal: promoting ethical standards and legislative actions to eradicate an illegal phenomenon that involves the entire planet.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark—Yang Guang and his old friend, a logistics officer at a major hospital in northeastern China, had everything planned: the officer would slowly, carefully, over many months, collect the files and documents moving across his desk that showed a pattern of illicit organ harvesting at the hospital. Then, he would leave China on “vacation,” defect, and expose how Chinese hospitals were killing for their organs practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that is persecuted in China.

The plan came undone in December 2009, Yang Guang said, when his friend received a visit from China’s secret police, who got word of the plan. The friend is now retired, and Yang has not been able to contact him for several years.

Yang said that he kept detailed notes of their discussions throughout the 2000s, however. Earlier this year he recapitulated his notes in interviews with the Epoch Times, providing a portrait of how organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners may actually play out in China.

The month of June this year was to be one of celebration for the Chinese transplant community. An important conference was planned, the agenda of which was “to establish China as a model for the international standards now set forth by World Health Organization’s Guiding Principles and the Declaration of Istanbul,” the two global benchmarks for ethical organ transplant practice.

But there was no conference this June. And not a peep has been heard about the matter—not from China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission, which ostensibly oversees the country’s organ transplantation system, nor from The Transplantation Society (TTS), the international medical body that has for years worked with Chinese officials in an attempt to have them turn their system around from one of outright abuse into an ethical paragon for other countries.

In what mainland Chinese media described as an “earthquake” in the nation’s military, retired Gen. Xu Caihou was purged on July 1 from the Chinese Communist Party and charged with corruption.

Xu’s fall from the heights of the CCP followed a career based on a devil’s bargain: Xu managed to convert his enthusiasm for persecuting the spiritual practice of Falun Gong into position and influence.

In 1999 Xu Caihou was the political officer for one of the seven military regions of the People’s Liberation Army, one of hundreds of Party cadres a few rungs below the CCP’s top ranks.

Xu then began a meteoric ascent, in the same year he become the second in command of the PLA’s political department and a member of the Central Military Commission that commands all of China’s armed forces, and then in 2003 he was promoted to director-general of the political department.